Bleached White Bone Saddles

Bone's hardness and density contributes to good tone, it polishes well, and it allows more precise filing.
Stewart-MacDonald is your source for quality bone!
Bone is traditionally preferred for making nuts and saddles on quality instruments.

Shaped saddles will save you a LOT of work—a head start for the novice, and a timesaver for the busy shop. The sizes have been carefully researched, and accurately radiused, so that minor trimming, slotting, and sanding are usually all you'll need to do.

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Bone's hardness and density contributes to good tone, it polishes well, and it allows more precise filing.
Stewart-MacDonald is your source for quality bone!
Bone is traditionally preferred for making nuts and saddles on quality instruments.

Shaped saddles will save you a LOT of work—a head start for the novice, and a timesaver for the busy shop. The sizes have been carefully researched, and accurately radiused, so that minor trimming, slotting, and sanding are usually all you'll need to do.

Gibson style shaped bone saddle blanks

I bought these to replace the "mystery" plastic saddles on a Gibson J-45 and a Hummingbird I own. These are pretty nice quality bone blanks that should save a bit of fabrication time.

The one issue I have with them concerns the rounded top surface. This is fine for a non-compensated saddle, but all modern Gibson acoustics use saddles with a compensated "B" string. To duplicate this, I will need to grind the top of the saddle square to begin the compensation notches, and there may not be enough height to the saddle after doing this. Also, the top radius measures 10" rather than the more common 12", so be aware of this.

Consistent Quality & Solid Performance

I use a lot of these blanks for a variety of wood and carbon fiber guitars and other instruments.

They are always well packed to prevent chipping along the edges. The bone grain is super consistent. I've done a lot of independent research (blind tests) on bone vs. Tusq and bone definitely gets a bad wrap. It is warmer, with better clarity, frequency and response then Tusq, hands down.

There exists some bad bone blanks with dead spots, but they are not made from these blanks. These blanks are excellent, averaging about 99/100 for me so far. I had one break (along the grain) with a very thin slot, but made another and it worked perfect. If you want the best, this is what your looking for.

Pre-shaped bridge blanks

With this saddle already having to right radius on them makes them quick and easy. All you have to do is cut it to length and shave it to the proper height and you're done. I used it on an under bridge pick up system and it sounds great, even tone and volume on all strings. Dad's old guitar, he would have loved it.

could be a little wider

I make my own nuts and saddles. I prefer the raw materiel, whether a blank or pre-fit to be a little oversized, you can make em smaller, not larger.

Stew's blanks and pre-cuts seem to be under the stated size, I feel I have to purchase items that are the next offering up in all directions.... consequently I am paying for items that are too large. Also, shop hard, I can usually find the same items for less.

A model to go by

I have nothing but good words for my recent purchase at Stewart-McDonald. Order was taken quickly, accurately, politely, and with great professional attitude. Best of all, items were sent within several hours of order taking. I wish all my internet purchase experiences were this painless.

Bone Beats Plastic

I replaced the plastic saddle, which had a plastic shim underneath, in my Yamaha 450 with a bone saddle. Big, big difference from the plastic saddle/shim. Better tone, louder, and better sustain. The difference was immediately obvious. Kinda surprising.

HereÆs a tip for shaping your saddle. Filing takes forever. I recommend using a fine, hacksaw blade. Get a pair of small wood clamps, a metal straight edge, and a board. Sandwich the saddle between the board and the straight edge, and use the straight edge as a cutting guide. A knife sharpening stone is good for rounding the corners and removing burrs.

Bone Buts and Saddles

I have a small shop. I build 2-3 guitars annually that I adopt out to friends and young people who share my love of the instrument. I also do a bit of work on older guitars. I have used both blank and shaped nuts and saddles from Stewmac without a single bad experience (except the one's caused by my own hand!).